I was so proud of repairing a Pentax MESuper by working on the shutter speed/auto selection wheel. I was arrogant enough to think that would be the permanent repair.
Unfortunately the shutter began to misbehave. When you pressed the shutter release the mirror would go up and the shutter would open and stay that way until you released the shutter button. Then the shutter curtain would close and the mirror would come down again. The camera was pretending to be on “B” no matter which setting you had chosen.
I took the camera’s bottom off to see if I could spot any linkages not working as they should. Nothing seemed out of place and pushing and pulling on various bits didn’t release the open shutter.
Much resigned to having to give up, I tried moving the shutter selection dial one last time and suddenly noticed the dial was loose. After puzzling out how to place the dial back where it belongs—which isn’t that easy to figure out as the dial has a long shaft that goes down into the camera while fitting through a concentric plate—the camera now behaves perfectly.
Needless to say I adjusted that dial’s screw-in keeper as tight as I could without stripping something!
Comments